Once upon a time there was a man, let’s call him Dejan, who went to his local supermarket to buy something, something quite ordinary. It could have been bread and milk, or tuna and cucumbers.
As he was filling up his trolley and walking down the aisles, he stopped in front of the shelf where the mayonnaise and mustard were lined up.
He stood there. In front of the shelf.
I walked past him.
He just stood and stood and stood, staring at the shelf.
He stood frozen, in a moment of hesitation, or possibly indecision.
He stood all day and all the next night, all week and all month.
A year passed, and he continued to stand there, a decade, a whole millennium, and beyond.
The shop collapsed, disappeared, the walls, the shelves, the street, the whole city, everything disappeared and he was still standing.
Image: Painting by Kristian Al Droubi
With a basket that had rotted many long years ago, with products that had become dust.
He stood and stood and stood and looked into the void where once stood a shelf on which stood mayonnaise and mustard.
